Plans For An Aboveground, Redeployment-Ready Reactor Neutrino Detector: PROSPECT-II

In its first run, the PROSPECT experiment reported the world’s highest-precision aboveground observations of the neutrino signal from a nuclear reactor. These measurements, collected in 2018 at the HFIR reactor at Oak Ridge, excluded important parameter space in the search for new physics in the neutrino sector. Data from PROSPECT is also sharpening understanding of the neutrino emission from nuclear reactors, with potential value for new safeguards and verification technology. Strengths of the PROSPECT approach are a segmented design and pulse-shape discriminating scintillator, which together enable the best signal-to-background ratio and energy resolution in a surface-deployed reactor neutrino detector. In its second phase, the collaboration is preparing to expand the physics reach and field robustness of this technology. The PROSPECT-II programs aims to definitively resolve the anomalies seen in near-field reactor neutrino experiments with extended data-taking at HFIR and possibly other reactor sites. The upgraded, redeployable detector will also advance the realistic potential of neutrino detectors as a tool for nuclear safeguards and verification.